The award is primarily aimed at those with a passion to see the Great Britain team succeed, as the prize will enable the inventor to realise their idea, while enabling UK Sport to utilise any outcomes prior to 2012 during a period of exclusivity.

A £25K prize is on offer for an idea that could be developed further to benefit the team. The closing date for entries is October 24 2008.

Us Brits do have a proud heritage of eccentrics working in their spare time or with scarce resources to produce some world-changing inventions. But sport being such an international, multi-mullion pound business now, this seems a bit of a long shot. What do you think?